Elpenor

Elpenor (died 431 BC) was a member of the Cult of Kosmas, an ancient Greek secret society which sought to control the Hellenic world through infiltration and war. He was assassinated by the mercenary Kassandra in 431 BC after ordering her to kill her own parents.

Biography
Elpenor was born in Kirrha, Phokis, and he became a member of the secretive Cult of Kosmas. Elpenor was involved in several conspiracies to take over the Greek world, and he was one of the forces behind the Peloponnesian War; he and the other cultists sought to ensure that the war would continue in order to weaken the Greek city-states before a takeover.

In 431 BC, he decided to head to Cephalonia to contact the mercenary Kassandra about assassinating her own father, Nikolaos of Sparta, whose campaign against Megaris was succeeding - Elpenor wanted the war to drag on instead of end in a Spartan victory. Elpenor's landing party was massacred by Kassandra at an abandoned house on the island's eastern shore, as Kassandra had been told by Markos of Kephallonia that they were the Cyclops of Kephallonia's friends. Elpenor, however, was amused by Kassandra's skills in slaying his ex-employees, and he hired her to retrieve the stolen Shroud of Penelope from Odysseus' Palace on Ithaca. Kassandra slew several bandits and returned the shroud to Elpenor, but Elpenor had her keep it, as the situation was only a test. He then contracted her with the murder of "The Wolf of Sparta" at Megaris; Kassandra later discovered that "the Wolf" was her own father, which Elpenor had known all along.

Kassandra would have her father fake his death, and she brought his helmet to Elpenor as "proof" that the deed had been done. When Elpenor asked that Kassandra kill her mother Myrrine, however, Kassandra refused, and a frightened Elpenor sent his guards to deal with Kassandra as he escaped. Elpenor attempted to have Kassandra killed by a decoy at Pharsalus, but Kassandra killed the decoy and found a letter on his body which instructed the assassin to meet Elpenor at the Snake Temple in Phokis. Kassandra proceeded to mortally wound Elpenor after a fight, and Elpenor told Kassandra that killing him was a mistake; however, she retorted by saying that trusting him had been a mistake. Elpenor died before he could tell Kassandra about his cult.